. “And I see the suspicion in your eyes. You can trust me, you know.”
Uh-huh. Trust wasn’t something she gave easily. It was even harder to attain with her than friendship was.
Turning away from him, Zoey stepped to the long couch behind the chair he’d motioned her to sit in and plopped onto the exquisitely comfortable leather seat.
“Trust you, can I?” she sighed. “And what would make me think I could? A single dance six years ago?”
Something shadowed his eyes then. Something dark, something hungry. It caused her heart to beat faster, a heat she’d only felt once before, to begin building inside her.
“We could start with that,” he murmured.
It was about a year too late, she told herself morosely. If he’d shown up a year ago with that suggestion she might have had the option of considering it. She couldn’t take that chance now.
“Nice plane.” She grappled for a change of subject. “Yours or your agency’s?” she asked, running her hand over the supple leather.
“Mine.” The laptop closed and he relaxed his chest, regarding her with open, sexual interest.
“Hmm. Should I bow?”
His lips quirked. “It might be rather hard in that leather, but you can try.”
“You’d be surprised what I can do in leather,” she murmured, the wordplay more exciting than she’d ever known it to be.
Zoey liked to flirt; she liked pitting her wits against the so-called charmers who thought they could talk their way into her bed. This was more than just flirting, though. It was more than pitting her wits against a man she had no intentions of taking to her bed. This was a man she just might have considered giving her heart to at another time.
Maybe.
She crossed one leg over the other and relaxed into the giving cushions behind her. “I could have gone with Eli.”
“You could have,” he agreed with a short inclination of his head. “If I were certain of your ability to convince a bar full of bikers that you’ve seduced their favorite female lone wolf.”
She grinned at that, reached up and removed the bobby pin from the tail of her braid, and let it fall over her shoulder. “I could totally do that,” she assured him with a little wrinkle of her nose. “I have mad seduction skills, you know? All from watching Sam Bryce in action.”
Sam was the shit when it came to seducing women. She could make a totally straight chick sit up and take notice. And give her more than a second thought.
His dark chocolate eyes gleamed with humor now. “Admittedly, Sam would be a capable teacher,” he admitted. “I rather assumed it wasn’t females you were into, though, considering the fact that she hadn’t managed to seduce you yet.”
There was the slightest hint of a question in his voice.
She gave a slow lift of her brows, playing with the braid hanging over her shoulder for a second before letting her gaze meet his again.
That knowing exasperation filled his expression again when it became apparent she wasn’t answering his question. Before he could say anything, though, the ringing of his cell phone drew his attention.
Checking the number, he glanced back at her. “If you’ll excuse me a moment,” he said, rising from his chair, “I need to take this.”
He disappeared through the door behind him without once ordering her to stay put.
She could just walk out and ride away if that was what she wanted to do. So why didn’t she?
Instead, she removed her jacket, laid it across the back of the couch close to her, and waited instead. She who hated waiting was waiting for a man who her instincts warned her was far more dangerous than he appeared.
She wasn’t certain how long he was gone, but it was long enough that Zoey ended up returning to the bike to pull a sketch pad free before returning to the plane. The need to draw wasn’t as imperative as it had been a year ago, but she had a sudden need to sketch Doogan. To catch the subtle expressions on his face before she forgot them. To catch the hint of humor in his eyes and the steely determination in his savage features.
Time passed quickly then. Too quickly.
Lost in the world she became immersed in while drawing, she wasn’t aware of the passing of time until the door opened and he returned.
“Sorry it took so long.” His expression was harder, his gaze chilly. “That had to be taken care of.”